The present invention generally relates to the field of gun recoil, and more particularly to an apparatus and method of recoil mitigation for a gun mounted on a light platform.
Momentum is the product of mass and velocity of a moving object. Through the principle of conservation of momentum, a projectile fired using a gun imparts to the gun an equal momentum in the opposite direction of the momentum of the fired projectile. This imparted momentum is known as recoil. High mass projectiles fired at high velocities can create significant undesirable and damaging recoil, particularly to guns attached to lightweight platforms such as small ground robotic vehicles or aerial drones. However, operating environments may necessitate the use of such projectiles and lightweight platforms in order to protect human safety. One example requiring recoil mitigation is an explosive ordnance disrupter mounted on a small, lightweight robotic platform.
Several prior art designs for mitigation of gun recoil are known, employing springs, brakes, and pneumatics. However, most prior art designs are gun-specific and not readily modified to account for recoil changes due to variations in gun mass, gun form, projectile mass, and projectile firing velocity. In these cases, the recoil system must be largely redesigned to account for changes in parameters such as gun mass or projectile load. Further, prior art designs do not efficiently utilize the mass of the gun and recoil apparatus components in a variable-recoil mitigation strategy tailored for attachment to light platforms.